Battling the Darkness Away
by South Park's Only PKMN Master
Summary: While traveling through Sinnoh, Ash begins to experience terrifying things. Pain from seemingly nowhere, reflections that seem to have a mind of its own, and more. Can Ash and friends figure out the problem before it's late? And what's this familiar deep voice coming from? Read to find out! Rated T just to be safe. One-sided malevolentshipping coming soon as chapters go on.
1. Chapter 1

Battling the Darkness Away

Chapter One

**A/N: Okay, so I had this story pretty much written up to the halfway mark until the family computer went stupid and got a virus, so the story got deleted. Not like any of you care, I think, but at least I can somewhat improve the plot and everything on a clean canvas…Hopefully. The original was a one shot, but I decided to turn into a multi-chapter. Also, this will be my first ever multi-chapter story, dunno how long, but definitely more than two chapters…Again, hopefully.**

**Anyway, please enjoy and leave a review. Constructive criticism, saying you loved it, it can be anything. BUT PLEASE GO EASY ON ME, I'm new :3 **

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

Geometric circles emerged from where silent tears hit the dark, yet clear water. They raced down his cheeks at a quick pace, as if their own life depended on it. Down and down they fell, leaving shiny trails on the crying trainer's face. He watched them hit his reflection, making his moonlight-pale face ripple and wave. He watched those huge, sadden chocolate brown eyes fill with them, glassing over with unshed tears before spilling over like water in a cup. Not wanting to see them anymore, he closed them shut.

He felt terrible, beyond terrible, as the unexplained pain was too much. So much pain, infact, that he couldn't even call out to his sleeping friends for help. Pikachu, Brock, Dawn…No one was coming. They were innocently sleeping in sleeping bags nearby, unaware of his current suffering state. Whispering was difficult, so can he expect himself to yell? Maybe he'll just have to endure it for tonight, and tell them in the morning because, gosh, this pain was to excruciating to be simply an injury. And Ash couldn't even tell where it came from. It is felt all over his body, head, stomach, limbs, just everywhere. It was impossible to trace it back to a source. Utterly impossible.

Ash took a painful, silent, shaky breath with eyes shut to prevent tears from coming down. He thought back on the events that leaded up to tonight. And even that was a painful thing to do.

There was his usual hike through the dense woods with the others toward the next city, or town, or whatever. He didn't pay attention to what Brock had said about that.

Then the usual rest stop with lunch and having to deal with yet another hilarious (well, hilarious to Brock) argument with Dawn over how the other always eats the most. Pikachu had to threaten to shock the both of them so they can finally settle down and actually finish eating the food, and not disturbed the rest of the pokemon.

Then came the battle with another trainer which ended in an easy victory (although Ash felt he was too tough on the trainer).

Then came with the same, old routine with Team Rocket which ended with them blasting off again. Ash was beginning to question how they do not break any bones from that…

Then a dinner that seemed exactly the same as lunch.

After that came the daily event in which they had to help a stranger, pokemon, etc., etc.

And now going to sleep in his old sleeping bag before waking to clear his head, a few minute walk through the peaceful forest to a huge, and incredibly beautiful lake, and then suddenly falling to his knees hunched over in this pain, if you can even call it pain. It was just too horrible.

Ash knew that he felt normal, just the usual tiredness that comes from walking nearly all day, everything was just normal. Just handy-dandy. So why now, out of all times, did this pain suddenly emerge? If it came only a few minutes earlier, he probably could've been treated by now from Brock. But NO. It had to come the ONLY time Ash was alone, and away from company. He cursed his terrible luck.

"Is it finally over?" he said to himself after a few minutes past of that pain. Ash felt it fade away, slowly but surely, and he can now talk, quietly. That intense burning of all his being was going away: he couldn't be more relieved.

'Just a few more minutes,' he told himself in his head, comforting himself, 'Just a few more and it will all be over. Just think about that new badge you'll be getting soon. Yeah, and the new pokemon and trainers you'll meet…'

Just as he thought, the burning pain faded away entirely. No left-overs, stings, nothing. Like it had never happened. Ash just took deep breaths and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with a cold hand. He finally opened his eyes and met eye-to-eye with his pale reflection. Even in the clear water darkened by night he could see how red and puffy his eyes were. He mentally wished that they will clear up by morning so no questioning from his friends would occur. He didn't want to tell them, being his stubborn self, but then again…That episode just wasn't normal. No injury, or migraine, nothing could've caused this as far as he knows. He's no doctor by any means, but it doesn't take a degree to know that it was strange and far too excruciating. He'll just, put it off until morning. Until then, Ash will silently recover and return to camp, and fall into a welcoming darkness that comes with sleep.

"I guess I better head back now," he quietly said to himself after another few minutes. During that time he had calmed himself down some, splashed his face with chilly, but not cold water, thought the experience over, and finally he simply stared at his reflection. He didn't know why, but something was just so…eye-catching about it. The way his seemed to glow in the soft moonlight, the depth of his eyes, the way his soft face contrasted with the dark, yet beautiful water. Dark beauty. Ash just didn't want to look away, he was stuck in place, like he couldn't even move. Yet he didn't even think about it, his mind was blank. Of course, he came to his senses when a strangely sudden gust of sweet-smelling air came through and ruined the mirror-like reflection. He jumped, startled, and relaxed when he saw it was nothing. Ash waited a few more seconds, just to take in the beautiful, yet eerie darkness of the forest with the soft glow of moonlight before standing up.

"It's late now, the sun will come up soon I'm sure," he said to himself and headed back to the small dirt path back toward his friends and a comfy sleeping bag. Ash couldn't wait to be dreamland and scurried faster, all while the painful episode faded away to the back of his mind.

As Ash finally disappeared into the campsite, he failed to notice his reflection that was still present in the dark water. The same reflection that looked exactly the same, except with malice swimming in those pools of warm chocolate brown. And topped off with a mouth that twisted into a smirk filled with revenge and…Malevolence. It continued to simply stare into the air before vanishing into the water, leaving no trace of it ever being there.

As he was dreaming, Ash shivered when an icy cold wind blew across his face with a dark, voice quietly said…

"It's time."

**A/N: Okay, so there it is. I KNOW IT'S SHORT. The first ever chapter to my first ever multi-chapter story. Ever. I'm still figuring out the plot, but it's all coming together now. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon, before the weekend. I dunno though, I'm bad when it comes to deadlines. PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH ME! First year of high school just isn't helping either, too much work -.- but I'll figure something out :D**

**Until I see you again, PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! :3**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay, now I present to you CHAPTER 2! School is being such a poop storm right now, and it's not even October yet -.- However, I sucked it up (that's…what…she…said) and wrote this when I had time. This is a relatively slow chapter, but the plot will get more eventful soon when I begin to type the next chapters. I can't just have Ash in trouble so early on.. :) **

**Enjoy! :3**

The sweet and mouth-watering smell of fluffy pancakes and bacon drifted to the nose of a certain Ash Ketchum as he continued to sleep. His nose twitched, mouth muttered something as drool slid down his cheek, all while Dawn stifled a laugh at the scene. She hoped at the moment that the world would survive the day Ash Ketchum became the Pokemon Master if she had ever taken a picture of this and showed it to the world. Of course, she had no camera at hand, and she wasn't that cruel. However, she did have to admit that it would be called, 'the ultimate blackmail'. She gave a loud, airy sigh at him and continued with her usual habit of smashing her home-made poffins and sprinkling the pieces into her pokemon food that Brock had given to her. Dawn hoped that Brock would never notice, or else he would fall in despair because he thought his cooking was beyond amazing. It was, but Dawn knew how to make it better.

'Oh well,' she thought and handed the last bowl of poke-food to her proud piplup. 'As long as he doesn't check the food, it's all good.'

"Piplup!" the little penguin cheered. It began to lift up bits of food with its light blue flippers and began to stuff it in its yellow beak. All while Dawn was continuing to watch.

"Wow Piplup, you're becoming the next Ash Ketchum," she teased and giggled. "Just keep on eating like that."

Brock couldn't help but over hear the mini-conversation. "Speaking of Ash, Dawn, did he wake up?" he asked as he pulled out some glossy brown maple syrup and some grape jelly from his 'cooking bag' as he like to call it. How he could fit so much stuff in there, no one knew.

"Ash? Nope, he's still sleeping like it wasn't already past 10am." She said annoyingly. "Honestly Brock, do we really need to wait for him? I can just save his food and he can eat it when he wakes up. No biggie." She stood up and soothened out the wrinkles on her mini dress. Dawn grimaced when she saw a huge dirt stain on her left side. "Besides, how much longer do we have until we reach the next pokemon center? A few miles?" she looked over at the elder of the group as he fed his own pokemon.

"I think so. Maybe just an hour hike and we'll be there by lunchtime if we go now." He petted his little happiny as it cutely smiled at him. "But like you said, we're almost there, so there really is no reason to rush, unless you have one…?"

"I haven't had a decent shower for a few days now, I feel icky!" she stuck her tongue out in grimace and gestured to her wrinkly dress, mud stained boots, just an all out dirty outfit. Her ocean blue eyes quickly darted at the still sleeping trainer. "If he doesn't wake up in the next five minutes.." she threatened.

"Then we'll continue to wait. It's not like you never over-slept before." Brock finished as he stood up.

"I know but…Beauty sleep!" she attempted to explain. When she saw Brock make absolutely no attempt to wake Ash up, she simply sighed and plopped back down beside piplup.

'I guess I can wait more than five minutes…' she reasoned with herself in her mind. 'My stomach isn't really growling or anything.'

Pikachu, who was sitting by his trainer's messy head of ebony hair, simply sighed and continued its task of waiting for Ash to wake up. It noticed Ash's strange breathing pattern, and not to mention those slightly red rings around his closed eyes. His skin color wasn't the light tan as before, no, it was just pale. The type of pale that comes up when you're extremely sick, and that worried Pikachu to no end. How did no one notice this? Surely Brock must've seen it, and maybe he didn't react or anything because it was nothing. Just a the result of sleeping, uncovered, in chilly air for an extended amount of time. Yeah, maybe that's what happened. Pikachu couldn't think of any other reason for it.

After seemingly staring of into nothing, an extremely familiar startled Pikachu out of a daydream.

"Pikachu?"

Pikachu looked at Ash as he slowly began to open his eyes. The bloodshot look in his eyes had completely disappeared at this point. "Pi?"

"Ugh," Ash forced himself to sit up, his back aching from the hours he slept on the hard ground. "What time is it?" he groggily asked and rubbed his eyes like an innocent child. That sunlight was strong…

"A few minutes past ten." Brock answered. "You were knocked out longer than usual." He looked closer at Ash, concern dripping into his facial expression. "Hey buddy, are you okay? You look like you've seen a Ghastly or something.'

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"No you aren't. You also have red circles around your eyes! That can't be normal, right?" Dawn had looked back towards Brock, the irritation of not having breakfast was leaving her mind AND stomach.

"Dawn's right Ash, you are not in the condition to hike to the nearest town. We're close enough, you can rest and tell us when you're ready to leave." He began to reheat Ash's breakfast including theirs.

"No, you said we're close, so why not go now?" Ash stubbornly asked. Pikachu didn't lay his eyes off him.

"Didn't you hear what he said? It's for the best, we got all day." Dawn said.

"No, let's just get over it over with, I'm fine!" Ash insisted and tried to get up. He heard Pikachu loudly protesting, and saw it wave its little arms in a 'sit down' gesture. "I'm fine," he said to it.

"Ash, sit back down before you hurt yourself!" Brock exclaimed and rushed over towards Ash along with Dawn.

"See, I'm fine!" Ash said proudly as he stood up straight. He saw Brock and Dawn somewhat shocked faces. "You guys should really trust me more, I'm alright!" he hopped on one leg and alternated with the other to prove that he had balance.

Brock simply looked at him wearily. "Alright, if you insist." He gestured toward the table with the warm food. "C'mon, we better eat before it gets cold again."

For the first time that morning, Ash smiled. "Sure, I'm starving!" he began to rush towards the table before Dawn stepped in front of him.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Ash asked.

"Ash Ketchum, didn't your mother ever teach you to wash up before eating?" She replied.

"Wha…Oh! Yeah, I forgot." He smiled sheepishly and waved. "I'll go do that right now!" he turned and bolted toward the lake, Pikachu also ran after him.

"He'll never learn." She chuckled and headed toward her delicious breakfast. 'Although I really hope he's okay, he looked so pale, how did we not notice it?' she took her first bite of pancake. 'It's probably just some random thing.'

"Ah, that refreshing!" Ash exclaimed as he splashed the somewhat chilly water onto his face. "Nothing like some water to wake you right up, huh Pikachu?" He smiled as Pikachu 'chu'-ed back. It dipped its little face in the water before raising it back up. 'This place looks familiar..' Ash noticed in his mind. 'I wonder why?' he looked down and saw how still the clear water was, making his reflection look like a mirror. 'Wait, this is the place that it happened, wasn't it?' His eyes widened as his reflection didn't.

"What's happening?" he asked out loud, it scared him how his reflection didn't even open its mouth, it seemingly frozen in a smirk, so un-Ash like. "Pikachu, do you see that?" he asked at it. His eyes widened like dinner plates as Pikachu looked at his reflection and shook its head. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as Ash could hear his heart thumping loudly in his ears. He tried to get up, but was seemingly frozen, forced to keep looking at the demonic looking reflection. "Pikachu, shock me!" he commanded, his voice wavered from how scared he was.

"Pikachu?" it asked at him, it was clearly starting to freak out at Ash's scary behavior. What was going on?

"Please, now, just do it!" he closed his eyes as he saw Pikachu getting ready to thunderbolt him. Not a second later, he felt the familiar current of electricity racing through him, he was sweating more now.

"Thanks, Pikachu." He said after it was over. He hesitantly looked, and much to his relief, saw he reflection not wearing that awfully scary smirk. Not wasting any more time, he quickly shot up, grabbed Pikachu, and raced back towards camp, not daring to look back.

**A/N: Okay, so that's the end of chapter 2! Hopefully it was good, and not rushed towards the end. Next chapter will be up around the same time next week if school doesn't decide to poop all over my time. -.-**

**Please READ and REVIEW! :3**


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